Helene

What bothered me was that it could have been a great movie.

Many thanks to Ballet Talkers who've responded so far. The rest of this message is not for you Also, people who contribute by purchasing through our amazon.com link are strong supporters of the site, and the rest of this message is not for you, either We're a little less than halfway there. If you're planning to contribute directly, we'd really appreciate it if you'd do so soon, so that we can plan for the next year. Sadly for our coffers, most of the great video is being broadcast in HD but hasn't been released yet on DVD, book publishing is in the tank, and ballet DVD and book sales traditionally have been our core for amazon earnings. Hopefully some of those Opus Arte productions will make it to hard copy.

One thing that's wonderful about that part is how it starts with him doing a perfect turn from deep second position plie which gets increasingly wobblier the more he does. Pacitti has a big, wide, beautifully turned out, juicy, juicy, juicy plie. So it's not surprising when he's enamored with and discombobulated by Odile -- in fact, it's inevitable It's the emotional pull-tug that he knows. I don't think it's only that she's in and out: when she's in, her performances have been quite inconsistent, and not in the wild "What will Suzanne Farrell do today?" way. She hasn't made me care what she will do next. I LOVE this dynamic. It makes the grown-ups more than just stage dressing. And it's completely integrated into the ballet, like a barely audible rumble of low strings.

Thank you so much for posting this PeggyR -- I'd worn out my bookmark going back to that page all weekend, trying to see who'd be cast. What great casting: Sofiane Sylve and Sarah Van Patten in "Diamonds", Elana Altman and Sylve as Tall Girl in Rubies and Tina LeBlanc in the lead, Lorena Feijoo in "Emeralds" -- that would have been my ignorant last guess for her -- and Maria Kotchekova, and Frances Chung (I love her) and Isaac Hernandez, who wowwed me in "Swan Lake" in the second couple.

I was disappointed in "The Audition". I don't know what footage the filmmakers had to work with, but I thought that they couldn't decide what kind of documentary it was going to be, and it ended up a tepid pastiche. I don't agree with the "Opera News" reviewer that the film should necessarily have focused on the backstory, but that would have been one way to give the film grounding and a point of view. There's a great difference between anxiety and dramatic tension, which, in my opinion, only showed up at the end. Even then, the logic of the narrative escaped me often. For example, in the excerpts shown, I thought that Disella Larusdottir, the beatifically beautiful coloratura from Iceland, who has the type of voice I rarely care about, infused so much emotion and color into her scene from Berlioz's "I Capuletti e I Montecchi" that I'm going to figure out a way to travel to Iceland to hear her, and, yet, when she went offstage, she could only talk about how she had never sung so badly, in both of her arias. This made no sense to me based on the clips shown. Either the film makers didn't want to show where she struggled, or she was being too hard on herself, and there was no one to put this in context. Did the judges agree that she sang badly? Or did they decide she was too old? I found the director's decisions curious: did we need to see the reaction of so many singers when they first got on the Met stage, one for the semis, again for the orchestra, and then listen to them talk about how overwhelming it was? It felt like half an hour of this, although I'm sure that was just perception. Did we need to watch almost every competitor in every phrase walk into the room in which his/her colleagues were waiting? The same people were supportive, and Michael Fabiano glowered. It didn't make sense or a point. There was so much footage of conductor Marco Armiliato being adorable and encouraging, a point that was gettable the first two or three times. It was very clear how many people in the process were supportive of the singers and wanted them to be successful. What was interesting was the differences in the way these singers approached the stage, the coaching sessions, and reacted to the situation. The three things that I found fascinating were the coaching, the strategy for choosing pieces, and the judging, and these, by comparison, were meted out in favor of repetitive reaction scenes. My favorite part of "Hoosiers" was watching the drills, because it showed the work and the discipline that gradually came to fruition on the court. I thought one of the great scenes in "The Audition" was during the breathing lesson, when Kiera Duffy was able to absorb the breathing coach's suggestion immediately and to enrich her sound significantly. It might be rare, but that was magic. I would have like to have seen how some of the singers warmed up: what exercises did they use? How did they know when they were ready? (What were the tests?) How did they prepare for walking into the room with the coaches? Did they just fling the door open? Did they pace, take a deep breath, pray? What was the process? There were so many themes that were left dropped. Take weight, for example. The very heavy women showed their concerns, and touched the surface of how they could or could not address it, but there were two critical pieces in the film that weren't tied to it, and could have made a story arc: the discussion among the judges about whether one of the singers could be cast in her fach because of her weight. (If she can sing "Casta Diva" like that, she can sing Norma in my opera company any time she wants, thank you.) I think the other was when mezzo soprano winner Jamie Barton performed the witch in "Hansel and Gretel": I think she deliberately showed how she could act and how she could move, despite being heavy. She showed a lot of stage presence and charisma, and that showed her as a useful singer. I think the real underlying drama, apart from naming the winners, which is a no-brainer, was what were the judges looking for and how did the singers try to guess/understand/intuit that and adapt, while still maintaining their authentic selves (or not). Because it wasn't about the most beautiful voice or the most finished voice, just as it isn't about the best actor or the best dancer or the best candidate for the job or internship or fellowship or ambassadorship in a vacuum. It's about what the hirers and looking for, what they like, and what they need. That dramatic point was erratic and diffused. Watching anxiety is not nearly as interesting as the mechanism driving the boat. The next dramatic level was only touched upon: how at each phase -- and we are talking a mere week between Semi-Finals and Finals -- raised the bar and the expectations. It was a little Kafka-esque. What I found downright appalling was the trailer: each time I saw it, after Duffy, the tiny soprano who makes Natalie Dessay look zaftig, said to the coach (?) whose first name was Carrie Anne something like "I feel like I'm ahead" and Carrie Anne replied emphatically, "You're not," the audience reaction was audibly negative, snorts and hrumps, and murmurings of the b-word (and this in polite Seattle), interpreting this as how she felt about her competitors. It isn't until close to the end that you see this quote in context: Carrie Anne says something like "You're not. He'll follow you," meaning the conductor. Duffy was anxious about how she was syncing with the orchestra. Meh, meh, and meh to whoever made that decision. The irony of it all is that while the three featured tenors, Fabiano, Ryan Smith, and Alek Shrader, were rivals in competition -- I didn't get enough of a sense of Michael (?) Plenk to know where his voice lies -- they were so different, that if I had my imaginary regional opera company with 4-5 operas a year, I could build a season around them. They sang very different things. Maybe it's just me being a tenor person, but it seemed to me that the personality stories were an alternative Three Tenors. Shrader and Fabiano could not have been more opposite. Shrader, who could take over for Ashton Kutcher, seems to be the sunniest human being ever. On the opposite side of the spectrum was Fabiano. In one scene, he talks about how you have to play the game, smile, etc., but this was a guy whose every emotion was readable on his face at every minute, and his emotional landscape was like the weather in Seattle: wait 10 minutes and it would change. He could hide nada. He would walk into the waiting area with his colleagues, and the air would be sucked out of the room. Once it a while, he would be moved by someone else's singing for a brief second, but then realize that they were the enemy, and then he'd go back to full sulk. (At least, though, he admitted to having a temper and recognized at one point that he needed a self-imposed time-out.) As a colleague, he came across as a potential nightmare. What was scary was that he doesn't have the filter between his thoughts and emotions and his vocal chords. I kept thinking that in five years, he would have either spent his voice or driven his car off a cliff. But his interpretive gifts at such a young age -- the result of all of that thinking and fulminating -- are extraordinary. I was in tears during his aria from Le Villi, just gobsmacked, and his "Kuda" was gorgeous. Though I'm grateful for that fourth wall. Performance isn't like competition; it's not "Rocky" every night, and it's not a series of recitals. It's hard to imagine a more lonely existence than being on the road all of the time without being able to enjoy the act of collaboration, and always trying to be five steps ahead of the game. I saw the film with Sandy McKean and his wife, and the first time Ryan Smith started to sing my favorite tenor aria, "E la solita storia" from "L'Arlesiana", I turned to Kathy and whispered, "I want to marry him." What a generous sound. For me, the payoff really was how the three tenors sang their arias in the competition. From the excerpt in the film, Smith was the first tenor I've heard to rival the Ferrucio Tagliavini red vinyl 45 I practically wore out as a teenager. Alek Shrader, who had never sung "Mes amis" from "La Fille du Regiment" in public, and who said before the finals that he hoped to get 5-6 of the high C's, and if he got the last one, maybe no one would remember that he missed a few in the middle, nailed each and every one of them, looking like he could start a boy band the whole time. And Fabiano was just wonderful in the "Onegin". You just know, though, that when they called the winners -- there were going to be five, with an optional sixth -- and no one knew after number five whether that was it, that they called him last to torture him. The real dramatic moment in the movie is the still, dedicating the film to the late Ryan Smith, who died of lymphoma a year and a half after winning and starting a real career. The sweetest was when Smith called home to say "Mama, I won." After the film, there was a mini-panel discussion between Renee Fleming, Susan Graham, and Thomas Hampson. I know that Fleming is the poster girl for beautiful, but she's a gusher, and insight is not her forte, at least when she's playing hostess. The meat of the discussion came from Hampson. I've always found him arrogant -- I wanted to slap him when he "interviewed" John Relyea and Marcello Giordani just as they came offstage after Act I of "Damnation of Faust", cutting off the baritone every chance he got, and focusing on Giordani, who seemed a bit flustered -- and I mentioned this to a former co-worker who had been his contemporary when both were young singers. She acknowledged that he was arrogant, but that he delivered, even as a neophyte: she said, he acted as if he were G-d's gift, but he sang as if he were G-d's gift. Here, he sounded intelligent and generous, and when he said that the singers should come to him for counsel on nerves, I immediately thought that Fabiano should book a one-way ticket to Vienna and get himself adopted. Why do I think the level of the conversation would have gone up several notches if the non-svelte Stephanie Blythe had hosted it? I did love the still photo of Susan Graham in her winner's concert, with her big Texas hair. Since the DVD was distributed to a general film audience -- even Roger Ebert reviewed it -- I'm hoping it makes it to DVD with the extras of the footage of the competition. A girl can dream, no?

I would assume that the dancers in "PAMTTG" and "Tricolore" gave it their best shot. My reaction in these situations is usually: 1. The dancers looked great. 2. The dancers looked energized. 3. The choreography wasn't worthy of the dancers. 4. What was the Artistic Director thinking? The bottom line is that the choice of choreographers belongs to the Artistic Director, and I think they should have a reasonably good expectation that any new work will fall into the guidelines they set based on the needs of their dancers and programming, unless they either give a dance genius a clean slate or agree ahead of time that that choreographer is plannig a major experiment or change in style and/or philosophy. The AD might have been thinking deeply; this could result in having chosen someone of great value who missed, or someone with promise who missed, or a choreographer who has little respect for or facility with ballet and/or whose last 10 pieces were predictable and/or self-derivative and look like a great idea for the marketing campaign poster.

If the casting carries over from the last run, PNB has multiple excellent casts in "Square Dance", which I could watch three times in a row.

Oh, I don't know -- maybe she has x-ray vision? I wouldn't put it past her I've often wondered if these are the hardest roles in the ballet. Not the most strenuous or challenging dramatically, but it's as if each of the women soloists has to be able to do everything except an extended lyrical pas de deux. Although at one time it would have done that too: it's pretty amazing to think that the music Stowell used for the Act IV Pas de Deux was written originally for the Act I Pas de Trois. It is a different in character for the Pas de Trois as it stands now as the original Black Swan Pas de Deux music that Balanchine used for "Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux" is from what has been used ever since, which I believe originally was in Act I(?)

I'm not sure wh the neglect of "Romeo and Juliet" is a negative consequence of this gift, will allow ABT to divert funds they'd normally use for new works to other projects or to operating costs. That doesn't guarantee an R&J, but I'm not sure how the gift prevents it. There's plenty of room on the ABT calendar in both City Center and the Met seasons, although I hope "new works" includes at least one Ratmansky full-length over the next few years. I think it's great that someone put a pile of money into new work. Often, people who designate gifts to organizations want only "Swan Lakes" or Zefferelli "Tosca"s. These donors are unlikely to be scandalized by new work and walk away in a huff. If I had the shekels to save Tudor works, I'd give them to New York Theatre Ballet, not ABT.

One striking thing I forgot to note about Imler's performances was the moment in Act III after Siegfried refuses to choose one of the princesses to marry. She walks upstage to the princesses, who are in a diagonal line from upstage left to downstage right, to check out each, since if he won't choose, I guess she will, and the way Imler eyed each one up and down, she could have been the chief judge at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. (It wouldn't have been classical ballet if she checked out their teeth, so she didn't.) I saw the final performance of "Swan Lake" tonight. The printed program was all over the place apart from the principals. Lindsi Dec and Stacy Lowenberg moved to Pas de Trois, and at least two of the other Guests (the female Act I sextet) were subs -- I noted Brunson, Chapman, Gilbreath, and Thomas among them -- and I could have sworn that I saw Brittany Reid and Stacy Lowenberg dance the first Valse Bluette demi-solos, which the Pas de Tros was danced by the scheduled trio, Chalnessa Eames, Kylee Kitchens, and Sarah Orza. Jerome Tisserand was Benno, who in this production is featured at the beginning of Act II, when he runs in ahead of Siegfried and his other friends. Kari Brunson substituted in Czardas, so I don't think she have been the Indian Princess at the same time, but I was too busy watching Leslie Rausch's elegant princess. I kind of wanted to slap Siegfried in the head, to say, "What's wrong with her?" but I thought of doing the same thing in Act I about Maria Chapman's Guest. But that's like picking which of the Dukes in Sleeping Beauty Aurora should have chosen if the court hadn't been put to sleep for 100 years -- my answer would be 1. Gary Avis 2. Lucien Postlewaite -- and they didn't have what Bruce Marks called Siegfried's mishegas. Nakamura and Postlewaite reprised their roles, bookending the run. It was another breathtaking performance. Nakamura's arms were pure poetry in the White Swan solo; this was my all-time favorite performance of this solo. I wish this and the whole performance had been taped for DVD. Last night's audience was electric from start to finish. Tonight's audience was electrified by Nakamura's and Postlewaite's performance, especially in Act III, which carried through to the end of the evening, and the ovation was enormous. Other repeat performances that were particularly noteworthy were Benjamin Griffith's Jester -- I didn't think he could surpass last night's, but he did, and he even did an aerial cartwheel to boot -- Ariana Lallone's Persian Dance, the Dec/Pacitti/Reid/Spell quartet in Spanish, and Pacitti's Wofgang. Because of some of the substitutions, I was able to see Dec and Lowenberg in the Act I Pas de Trois for the first time, and Kari Brunson and William Lee-Yin's Czardas. Dec and Lowenberg are taller dancer, and Orza looked much more comfortable partnering them -- his hands seemed to know where to go. He looked even more confident in his solo, and he did a beautiful traveling double turn upstage at the end of a big jump phrase. They made a very handsome trio. Both Dec and Lowenberg's long legs look different in the choreography -- a little slower, less sharp, a little more lush. In the first half of her solo, Dec was literal with the music -- one of Rachel Foster's strengths in the same role was how she connected the smaller sections into a longer phrase -- but she owned the coda with expansive movement. Brunson and Lee-Yin were an impressive pair in the Czardas. Lee-Yin was majestically space eating. The swan corps outdid themselves tonight: after a run of six performances in four days, including matinees yesterday and today -- the normal PNB schedule is one matinee per weekend -- they were as disciplined and committed as ever. Bravi to them. I'd like to note the superb, sensitive playing of the violin/cello duet in the White Swan Pas de Deux. The individual musicians are not credited; John Pilskog is the Acting Concertmaster and Page Smith is the Principal Cello in the PNB Orchestra.

With "Coppelia" you get a full-length and Balanchine in the same show!

From the release: Quay Brothers’ Dance Films Monday, April 20 at 7:00 pm Coolidge Corner Theatre 290 Harvard Street, Brookline As part of its month-long retrospective screenings of the phenomenal work by the Quay Brothers, two of the world’s most original filmmakers and this year’s Coolidge Award recipients, the Coolidge Corner Theatre presents a selection of shorts unavailable elsewhere. The program includes two exquisite dance films rarely seen in this country: The Sandman Based upon by E. T. A. Hoffmann's story, "The Sand-Man" and the music of Janáček and Kurtág, the Brothers along with choreographer Will Tuckett, create a dreamlike experience betraying our impression of familiar objects. This haunting piece, which starts at the deathbed of Hoffmann himself, draws together dance, music, and film, magically blurring the boundaries between real and imaginary, visible and invisible. The transcendent ballerina Zenaida Yanowsky embodies our deepest emotions. (2001, 43 minutes) Duet A film about dance, created around the music of Arvo Pärt, with choreography by Will Tuckett. Ethereal performances by Adam Cooper and Zenaida Yanowsky, principal dancer with the Royal Ballet, set in the Quays’ vision of evocative space. (2000, 18 minutes) This program will also feature a selection of the Quay Brothers’ television commercials. Tickers available in advance at www.coolidge.org or at the Coolidge box office, located at 290 Harvard Street in Brookline. For more information about the Coolidge Award, to be celebrated May 6-7, please visit www.coolidge.org/award. The Quay Brothers on dance: “We are not dancers; we are not trained in any way. What we like is the way the camera can become a subjective other character. It's by watching dance that you realize that a world can be expressed through gesture, décor (like the silent cinema), music, or a look. You have to read, to interpret, the ballet – since there's no dialogue – and that fascinates us. The way a choreographer deals with abstract space is very exciting. There is a lot to learn from that. "How do (dancers) know where their body is in space and what it's doing? What are they feeling inside them? This is different from the actor, who is half the time working with his brain, thinking about the role. Dancers really are a unique species. They can't come out of their bodies and watch what their bodies are doing in terms of space, décor, music, because they're attached to the whole picture. The picture is inside them, like a secret inner picture. And musicians have that too. … "Ultimately, the work we want to go for is like music. You just have to sense it, you don't have to think it too much. You just have to sense it and just go with it because it will take you on a great journey and a very moving one”. " - The Quay Brothers, Senses of Cinema, 2001

Carla Korbes danced Odette/Odile this evening. It might be more accurate to say that she sang it, the way people say that Yo Yo Ma's cello playing sings. Her movement quality is unique and immediately recognizable, the way Pavarotti's or Nilsson's is after just a few notes, and equally beautiful. The only other thing I'm going to say about it is that the next time "Swan Lake" is performed here, get on a plane, train, automobile, bicycle, or auto-rickshaw and make sure you see her in it. I wish that everyone reading this site could. Stanko Milov danced Siegfried, and he was ON tonight, the best I've seen him this season, but more importantly, he was partner and dramatic counterpoint to Korbes' O/O. The physical stand-off between him and William Lin-Yee at the end of Act II was great to see: two tall, powerful dancers standing their ground. Lin-Yee was roundly booed at the final curtain calls, which means his characterization was a great success. The Jester in this production is an unusual character: he's clearly a friend to the Prince and a valued member of the royal household, at the same time having several bravura solos. What is impressive about Stowell's vision for the character is that it doesn't require shamelessness. Benjamin Griffiths' characterization was sunny and his dancing plush: what beautiful technique he has. Another unusual take on character is the Persian Dance in Act III: while the attendants, all kids from the school, had typical Oriental story ballet movement, the Persian Dancer role has a lot of dignity, a quality not often associated with a woman in harem pants and a bare midriff. Especially when danced by Ariana Lallone, who performed with great stature and without the slightest hint of subservience. There was a pre-curtain announcement that Seth Orza would dance in the Pas de Trois in place of Jonathan Porretta. I'm not sure how much practice Orza had with his partners, Rachel Foster and Jodie Thomas -- he's rather taller than both -- but it wasn't a completely smooth ride, although his solo work was terrific. Rachel Foster has a wonderful way of making each solo role a jewel: in the Pas de Trois, her legs and feet were precise and pristine, and in the Neopolitan in Act III, with a comparably wonderful James Moore, she resembled Patricia McBride for a brief second, and made me want to see them both in Balanchine's Tarantella. Jodie Thomas played little riffs on the timing; it's great to see her dancing with freedom and rhythmic expression. In the Polonaise, a tiny brunette in muted green who was partnered by Sokvanarra Sar caught my eye even in the back row with her crisp timing and expressive arms. There are too many dramatic touches in Act I to absorb all at once, but there were several that registered strongly tonight. First was in Carrie Imler's fantastic portrayal of the Queen. After the Queen makes her entrance, she sweeps down stage left to look for her son and turns downstage, where she spots him. Imler didn't do the standard, "Aha! Lo and Behold! There he is! I see him!" gestures. Instead, she tilted her head softly to the side. She was a big pussy cat with him, until he dared to contradict her, and out came the claws: she turned controlling on a dime. Before the Queen leaves, she waits for Siegfried's arm for the walk upstage center, and the punitive way Imler pulled away her hand from his supporting arm said a million words. Later in Act III, his body language, all well-over-six-feet of him, changed from Prince to chastised boy in reaction to her. I'm grateful that there's a fourth wall between me and Imler's Queen. Later in the scene, one of the guests gets a little more attention from Siegfried as the other five are dancing, and tonight it was Stacey Lowenberg. From that moment, she was a character of her own: telling her friends about it, and smitten with the Prince, all within so many other vignettes that happen simultaneously. Then there is Jordan Pacitti's Wolfgang. sandik wrote in her review in The Seattle Weekly: What's so wonderful about Pacitti's fop is that he's very serious, with a touch of anxiety: you can almost see the temples of Pacitti's forehead being squeezed. He is vain, but it's not vanity of appearance: it's of character. He performed the Spanish Dance -- tonight partnering the terrific Laura Gilbreath -- completely straight, with the same serious expression. And in the middle of all of this characterization was superb classical dancing. It's great to read everyone's observations, all the things I missed at the first performance! Did I ever look for that fringe, a detail that I missed completely last week! I watched the Guests' dance carefully tonight, and I think that the waltz is just a bit of a mess, perhaps too ambitious. My only other beef about this production is that if, to name just two, Imler can make the Queen's mime that clear and if she and Pacitti can establish character through mime and gesture, and if the entire act makes great demands for characterization, why is mime expunged from Act II? I love Act IV the more I see it. It opens with the shifting corps patterns resolving to a flying wedge upstage right at Odette's entrance. After the Prince enters, goes to one knee, and, hunches over, bereft, Odette lifts his head, goes back a few meters, and opens her arms, her chest open and her head back, surrendering to him. Dramatically, I realized in the last run that it's like the juxtaposition of the Balcony Scene in "Romeo & Juliet" -- a scene of great hope and expectation for the future -- with the Bedroom Scene -- a scene of imperfect beings in a horrific situation dealing with forces beyond their control but accepting the present, another dramatic duality.

It's like watching the animated version of comic strips or the film/TV/theater version of books: they rarely sound or look like the characters in your head. (Snoopy does not sound like that.) I spent most weekends with my maternal grandparents until I was about 12. When I was 4, my grandfather bought a store that was open until 10pm. By the time he locked up, and we drove to their apartment, it was time for the 10:30pm commercials. I spend nearly every Saturday night of my childhood watching the second half of "Gunsmoke". (I don't know when I had time to follow all of those soaps!).

The blinding blond hair may be a generational thing -- funny since it is a staple of ballroom dancers and ice dancers, who are as stylized as they come -- like the not-found-in-nature blue/purple/orange hair that older generations of women sport. (I think the demise of hair dates back to Heather Locklear showing her dark roots on "Melrose Place". That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.) I think Somova is very, very pretty in the ways many of her film contemporaries are pretty. She's got the preferred look of her generation, a bit Disneyfied, which can turn vacant, something I noticed and found very disconcerting during the City Center run last April. Danila Korsuntsev reminded me of Patrick Dempsey in "Enchanted" when partnering her in "Ballet Imperial", with a similar look, but not with other partners or in the "Swan Lake" DVD. Watching their faces, I thought I was watching a Disney romance movie. I think that's one of the reasons I like Tereshkina so much: she looks like she knows where's she's going next, and like there's a brain ticking.

I hope Bold recovers quickly and fully. It's a shame that Imler won't be able to perform Odette/Odile this season.

Marg Helgenberger cut her teeth as Siobhan Ryan in "Ryan's Hope". An assistant dean at my college, Lorraine Broderick, left to become a writer on "All My Children" while I was still in school and eventually became Head Writer for a few years in the mid-late 90's. The theater people thought this was great, because it was show biz and a well-paid position, but I thought it was the absolute coolest thing in the world in itself, having been a soap opera lover my whole life.

You should see Revelations. It's an American classic.

That article was posted on a double-digit long thread on Ms. Part, and there was a discussion on that thread that asked the same questions: http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...st&p=222673 Did I mention to Ms. Part?

to Mme. Ciaravola and M. Heymann.

I've got my fingers crossed for you, Cristian!

Just to veer off for a minute, one of the great things about radio is that the actors need to have great voices, but it doesn't matter what they look like. I remember watching an episode of ER in which Mark Green's first wife told him that she'd found a job in Milwaukee clerking for a judge at the time his initial residency was up. Watching the show, and thinking he was a great guy, and loving him from "Revenge of the Nerds", I thought she was being selfish -- she was already being set up to be uptight and status-conscious, as opposed to our hero working in a city hospital. When the re-run was on, I was on a work trip, in my hotel room at my computer, and the layout of the room had the desk facing the wall, and the TV behind. I could only listen, and that time, I actually listened to the conversation, even though I was on work email at the time: they had made a deal that she'd go to law school in Chicago because his residency was there, but as soon as law school and the residency were over, they'd move to whereever she needed to start her career, and he was being the selfish one. I never would have come to that conclusion with the visual, but just listening to the dialogue, it was very clear.

Rachel was a very interesting character. She started out with the exact same trajectory as Erica Kane on "All My Children": raised by a working class single mother, and determined to marry out of her class into money. In both cases, they married interns who adored them, but neither realized how long it would be before the husbands would be wealthy and have the time of day for them. Then Rachel went after entrepreneur Steve Frame, who did have the bucks, much to the chagrin of the long-suffering blond woman whose name I can't remember. By the time the older Iris Carrington showed up to terrorize her prospective step-mother, Rachel was turning into a sympathetic character, and not from a typical, contrived soap opera situation (coma, plastic surgery, amnesia). Instead, they just let her grow up and stop being so needy. That she had discovered artistic talent as a sculptor, a rather solitary pursuit, helped develop her character. It always helped that "Another World" had a terrific core of adult actors on the show who carried the main storylines. It wasn't a show of kids. Morgan Freeman and Joe Morton were also on that show, the latter in dual roles playing a straight-laced doctor and his cousin. Jackee was also on the show. "Another World" had one of the deepest sets of story lines for black actors on soaps, and there was more than one token family, although they pulled the Joe Morton one abruptly and seemingly inexplicably.

If I remember correctly, there are no Q&A's after "Swan Lake". It's a long, long ballet, and especially with back-to-back performances on weekends, I think everyone involved would collapse. I can't remember if there are Q&A's after "The Sleeping Beauty", but I suspect not. I do remember people referring to "Swan Lake" in the Q&A after the program that followed SL last time.